Brian Reyes

Climbing back up after a low season can be a slow process. Brian Reyes stumbled in Fall 2006, but he regained some traction with his Spring collection, and more recently he scored a confidence-building red-carpet coup (that was his royal-blue dress on Ugly Betty's America Ferrara at the Golden Globes). The Fall show offered further evidence that he's back on track. Save for a few minor problems, it worked.

Reyes sent out an army of dresses in a flurry of colors, patterns, and
textures borrowed from traditional Himalayan garbkaleidoscope prints, cloud prints, and animal prints in silver, violet, emerald, and more. What many of these looks had going for them was this season's structured volume. Padded cocoon coats looked as if they could hold their own on Everest. A lightly quilted mod silver minidress formed a neat little cylinder around the body.

Moving on to movie-star dresses, Reyes impressed with a silver wrapped-and-pleated number and a gold-sequined column trimmed in black chiffon. Shirting-stripe dresses, on the other hand, felt out of place among all the rich colors and patterns. Still, we'd wager that Reyes, in current form, will enjoy another big awards show moment soon.